Nepal business, finance and trade news, every Wednesday.
The news out of Nepal this week is largely about the disaster. Our thoughts are with the victims and their families.
Satellite Imagery Pins Flood on Langtang Glacier
Satellite imagery from Planet Labs has settled the question of what happened above Rasuwa on August 26. A 600-meter-wide section of glacier and rock broke free at 5,200 meters on Langtang Lirung’s north face, fell 1,200 meters, and sent ice and debris into the Lhende Khola. The collapse generated a seismic event of magnitude 5.2, which the US Geological Survey first read as a 4.4 earthquake before revising its call. The debris blocked the river, then suddenly was unblocked, sending the flood downstream. The Department of Hydrology and Meteorology, working off imagery shared by the Chinese side, says the event was a combination of ice avalanche, permafrost movement and rockslide. A full technical assessment is still pending.
Read more: The Kathmandu Post (climate change risk), Nepali Times (infrastructure damage), The Kathmandu Post (cross-border warning systems)
2025 Findings Unimplemented, Disaster Follows
A July 8, 2025 flood on the Bhotekoshi left 18 people missing and destroyed the Miteri Friendship Bridge, causing Rasuwa’s district disaster committee to file a report calling for a cross-border early warning system with China, mapping of glacial lakes, and drainage structures to be built on high-risk lakes. On August 26, 2026, with no cross-border warning system, no glacial lake mapping, and no drainage structures in place, the river tore through a 42-kilometer stretch of the Betrawati-Rasuwagadhi road and caused widespread devastation. Ashish Gajurel, chair of the House of Representatives Development Committee, said last year’s flood “had already given a strong warning.” The report had several actionable recommendations, but none had been implemented.
Read more: Online Khabar (2025 report recommendations), myRepublica (climate fund financing)
Glacier Flood Wipes Out a Tenth of the Grid
A glacier collapse above Rasuwa on August 26 sent floodwater tearing through the Bhotekoshi and Trishuli valleys, destroying 12 hydropower and solar plants with a combined 431.1 megawatts and battering 15 more under construction (good for another 470 megawatts or so). The damage means a loss of about a tenth of Nepal’s installed capacity. Rasuwagadhi, only recently back online after last year's flood on the same river, went down again alongside Chilime, Devighat and a 220kV substation in Nuwakot, cutting power to Rasuwa district. NEA is preparing to run the Sanjen plant in "isolated mode," (that means disconnected from the national grid). Over the 12 damaged operating sites, more than 600 hydropower workers remained unaccounted for as of Sunday evening.
Read more: myRepublica (district outages), myRepublica (Sanjen restoration), myRepublica (rescue operations), Al Jazeera (death toll, damages)
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Barrier Lake Breaches Above Bhotekoshi
A barrier lake near the Chhochen Khola-Purepu Tsangpo confluence on the Nepal-China border has breached, Rasuwa's chief district officer said Friday, threatening a fresh water rise down the Bhotekoshi. China's Ministry of Water Resources had put the lake's volume at roughly 2 million cubic metres as of Thursday, with another 3 million expected to flow in over three days. Authorities are preparing aerial reconnaissance using helicopters stationed in Dhunche and Rasuwa. The breach comes after, and is separate from the August 26 flood.
Read more: The Himalayan Times (rescue deployment), The Kathmandu Post (Rasuwa flood damage), The Kathmandu Post (flood simulations)
Flood Gauges Stayed Green
The gauge at Rasuwagadhi recorded the Bhote Kosi at 1.62 metres, low and falling, at 8:40am on August 26. Minutes later a glacier-triggered debris flow destroyed it. Every station downstream died the same way, each one below its Amber warning threshold. By the time the wave reached Devghat, 170km downstream on the Narayani, it peaked at 6.57m, still under the 7.3m Amber line. The first station to register the danger was Malekhu, 100km downstream, at 11:20am, nearly three hours after the flood crossed the border, when water rose almost four metres between two ten-minute readings and crossed the Red alert mark. The network measures how high a river climbs, calibrated on decades of monsoon rainfall, not how fast a debris wall moves through a gorge. There is still no real-time data arrangement with China, whose glaciers triggered the collapse.
Read more: Nepali Times (budget cuts), The Kathmandu Post (NDRRMA delay), The Kathmandu Post (municipality death toll), myRepublica (Nepal-China framework), The Kathmandu Post (GLOF history)
Flood Bill Could Reach $5 Billion
The Finance Minister told Reuters the country may need up to $5 billion to rebuild after the flood, though he said the figure is preliminary. The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority thinks the initial infrastructure losses are Rs 200 billion ($1.3 billion) but that’s surely a fraction of the full rebuild estimate. Roughly 15,000 houses have been destroyed and hydropower projects in Rasuwa, Nuwakot, Dhading, Gorkha and Chitwan have been badly damaged. Commercial banks are looking at at least Rs 10 billion ($66 million) of exposure. Four of nine bank-financed hydropower projects took a hit, with Rs 7.5 billion ($49 million) tied to those plants and another Rs 2.5 billion ($16 million) lent to residents and businesses in the three affected districts. The government has not allocated a separate disaster response budget for this fiscal year and says it will approach donors once the needs assessment is complete.
Read more: myRepublica, The Kathmandu Post, myRepublica, The Annapurna Express, myRepublica
Seven-Day Wait to Enter Flooded Tunnels
Roughly 900 workers have been out of since the flood hit 11 hydropower sites along the Bhotekoshi-Trishuli corridor. Independent Power Producers' Association members say they were forced to wait seven days for government permission before they were allowed to enter flooded tunnels. The National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Authority blamed "geographical conditions and complexity" in addition to a “shortage of resources” for the delay. The Army puts confirmed rescues at 279, IPPAN says 361, but neither number has moved much over the past few days.
Read more: The Kathmandu Post (site-by-site rescue counts), The Kathmandu Post (Rs64bn damages), Ratopati (delay criticism), Online Khabar (minister quotes)
Foreign Tunnel Teams Join Bhotekoshi Search
Indian and Chinese tunnel rescue teams are working damaged hydropower sites alongside the Army. India is working at Chilime and Langtang, and China is at Upper Trishuli 3A. A South Korean team has arrived, and Singapore is sending a Disaster Victim Identification unit. Kathmandu has asked international partners for LiDAR, Bailey bridges, DNA testing kits, and high-capacity drones. More than 21,000 personnel from the Army, Police, and Armed Police Force are currently in the field.
Read more: The Rising Nepal (rehabilitation outlook), Spotlight Nepal (site-by-site deployment)
Korala Left Holding China's Trade Line
China closed the Tatopani crossing on Saturday, August 29 because of a landslide risk on the Nepali side at Liping after the August 26 flood swept away Rasuwagadhi's Timure settlement along with its customs, immigration and police offices. That leaves Korala in Mustang, a high-altitude pass with nothing like the capacity of the other two, as the only working overland link to Chinese goods. Traders are looking at the longer Kolkata sea route as backup, and officials in Lhasa say trucks and containers stuck in Kerung may get rerouted through Korala too. Consul General Laxmi Niraula says Tatopani will open again once the landslide threat in Liping is under control. Rebuilding customs offices near Timure, officials say, will take months.
Read more: The Kathmandu Post (import volume stats), The Kathmandu Post (customs revenue impact), myRepublica (stranded citizens repatriation)
Kathmandu Fuel on a Detour
A section of the Prithvi Highway collapsed at Krishnabhir on August 30, forcing Nepal Oil Corporation to reroute Kathmandu-bound tankers onto the 107km Naubise-Hetauda stretch of the Tribhuvan Highway or the 92km Lalitpur-Hetauda run along the Kanti Highway. NOC says its Amlekhgunj stockpile is still able to get to the valley in about six hours.
Read more: myRepublica
Drones Deliver Aid, Then Retrieve Bodies
Airlift Technology's drones delivered food and medicine to flood-cut villages in Dhading and Nuwakot last week, then did what rescuers couldn't do by airlifting seven bodies from Benighat-3 to Benighat-5. In Devighat-3, an AI-enabled drone communicated with survivors by asking by loudspeaker whether they had water, food or medicine, then radioed back what they needed to rescue crews.
Read more: The Kathmandu Post
That's all for this week, thanks for reading. Your voice matters to us. Feel we're missing something? Have additional sources to suggest? Don't hold back - hit reply and tell us what you think.
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